Ballets By Riccardo Drigo - Later Years in Russia

Later Years in Russia

In the spring of 1902, Drigo and a group of dancers from the Imperial Ballet were invited by Raoul Gunsbourg, director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, to produce a ballet in Monaco. Drigo composed the music for the ballet-divertissement titled La Côte d'Azur (The French Riviera), set to a libretto by Prince Albert I. The ballet premiered at the Salle Garnier on 30 March 1902, and featured the Prima ballerina Olga Preobrajenska.

Drigo's final original full-length ballet score was also Marius Petipa's final work — the fantastical La Romance d'un Bouton de rose et d'un Papillon (The Romance of a Rosebud and a Butterfly). The ballet was to have had its premiere at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage on 5 February 1904 but was abruptly canceled, the official reason given being the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. It was the belief of the newly appointed director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, Vladimir Telyakovsky, that the Imperial Ballet had become stagnant under Petipa's leadership. In light of the fact that Petipa still legally held the position of Premier Maître de Ballet of the company, Telyakovsky began to make efforts to drive the eighty-five year old Ballet Master from the theatre; the cancellation of the premiere of La Romance de la rose et le papillon was one such attempt that finally led to Petipa's retirement in 1905.

Drigo also fell victim to Telyakovsky's disfavor. When the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler visited a ballet performance conducted by Drigo in 1902, he was invited by the directorate to watch the performance in the Director's lodge. Mahler expressed to Telyakovsky his surprise at the fact that Drigo rarely used his left hand when conducting, and that he had been impressed by his ability to synchronize the music and stage action. Mahler had informed Telyakovsky that he wished to meet Drigo and congratulate him for his abilities as a conductor. Telyakovsky purposefully avoided arranging the meeting, and it was only days later that the Secretary of the Italian Embassy—who had been sitting directly behind Mahler—informed Drigo of the exchange.

In 1909 Drigo prepared a new version of his score for Le Talisman for a revival staged by the Ballet Master and former danseur Nikolai Legat. The revival premiered on December 12 1909 at the Mariinsky Theatre, with an audience consisting of the Dowager Empress Marie Fyodorovna. The cast featured Olga Preobrajenska as the Goddess Niriti and Vaslav Nijinsky, who caused a sensation in the role of Vayou, the God of Wind. Drigo was then invited by Giulio Gatti-Casazza to assist in mounting Le Talisman at La Scala. The ballet was presented as Le Porte-bonheur (The Bracelet) in a staging by the Ballet Master Luigi Tornelli, which premiered on 18 July 1908.

Drigo was vacationing in his native Italy during the outbreak of World War I in 1914, which prevented him from returning to Russia for another two years. Soon after his arrival in Petrograd he was evicted from his home at the Grand Hotel, which was converted to offices for the newly established Soviet government. For a time Drigo was forced to live in considerable poverty in a camp with a group of his fellow Italian émigrés. He later recalled in his memoirs of the many cold evenings he spent with his close friend and colleague Alexander Glazunov waiting for hours in bread lines and subsequently carrying their rations home through the snow on a sled. Upon his first engagement as conductor after his return to the former Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, Drigo received a fifteen-minute standing ovation from the audience.